Violence lessens on Mexican side of border

Tijuana saw the first major reduction in crime starting around 2009, when Public Safety Director Julian Leyzaola Perez began coordinating more with the country's military to attack the cartel violence and cleaned up the city's police force that many believed was working closely with the drug cartels. Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

For the first time since 2007, murders in Ciudad Juarez last year fell below 1,000, after reaching a high of 3,622 in 2010, according to Juarez officials and U.S. law enforcement data. H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY

Mexicans support U.S. businesses by making daily shopping trips to Walmarts, Targets and smaller stores throughout the region. A financial analysis group estimates Mexicans spend millions a day in U.S. stores. Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

Cross-border trade is so important that San Diego Mayor Bob Filner opened a municipal office in Tijuana, Mexico. He and Tijuana Mayor Carlos Bustamante also are installing phones on their desks that ring directly to each other. "Our future is tied together in so many ways - economically, environmentally," Filner says. Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

Tijuana Mayor Carlos Bustamante's office said kidnappings, a major revenue generator for drug cartels that also produced a sense of daily panic for city residents, have fallen 74% since 2010. Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

During the worst years of the drug wars, Eduardo Salcedo sat in his office overlooking a sprawling manufacturing plant of medical devices in Tijuana and fended off worried calls from corporate officials in Vista, Calif. The vice president overseeing DJ Orthopedic's Mexican manufacturing plant says his bosses were considering pulling out of Mexico. Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

"It's like we're breathing again,'' says Susana Vivar, whose family has run the Villa del Mar seafood restaurant for nearly a half-century in Ciudad Juarez. During the worst of the fighting, Vivar, her brothers and sisters kept the popular restaurant open despite periods when "sales were non-existent.'' H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY

What has not yet returned is the steady stream of American tourists and business people who helped keep the restaurants full at night in Ciudad Juarez, patronized doctors and pharmacies for more affordable health care services and supported local grocery stores supplied with cheap produce. H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY